Red Lion
by Rosie Summer
Summary: Two lonely strangers meet in a pub for a one night fling. Story is complete.
1. Chapter 1

In a darken corner of a smoked filled pub, the room was barely empty except for two elderly muggle gentlemen playing darts and the barman reading a newspaper, sitting on a stool.

I finished the second pint of ale and stared at the clock on the wall. The minutes ticking closer, as I closed my eyes and envision the only woman I have ever loved dressed as a blushing bride with her flame red hair curled around her shoulders. Green eyes shining as she smiles for photographs.

"May I join you?" A female voice interrupted my vision.

I open my eyes and saw a middle aged muggle woman holding her own pint of ale, motioning at the empty chair beside mine. Looking at the clock behind her, the time showed my love was arriving at the ceremony.

The woman beside me placed her glass next to my third pint on the table and plonked herself in the chair. Her ale spilled over the sides of the glass from the motion. Grabbing a hanky from her purse, I watched as she dabbed at the liquid on the table. She looked up at me with an apologetic smile. "Gosh I am so sorry, were are my manners." Holding her hand out, I grabbed it and gave a gentle shake. "I am...Jean...just Jean and you are?"

An internal laugh bubbled in my drunken mind. This woman obviously was not a Jean, perhaps like "Jean" for this moment in time I can forget who I am, forget about the girl of my dreams and pretend I am some handsome guy, who has a load of friends and not drinking in a pub drowning my unfortunate woes. I nodded in response. "Hello I am...Steven."

I noticed her brown eyes flicker as it registered in her face that this scenario was a one off. Letting go of her hand I turned my attention to study the woman. Brown hair slicked back into a bun, a few strands of grey. Soft laughter lines formed around her eyes and her figure was of a woman who looked after herself. A long chain hung around her neck and disappeared into her blouse. Maybe she was a beauty in her day or maybe she was plain and wanted to keep control of something about her body.

"So Steven, what brings you to the Red Lion?"

Red Lion, somewhere in my subconscious I walked into a pub with the description of my beloved. How did I not notice that?

I didn't respond to her question and instead took a sip from my third pint. She studied me, her eyes moving over my body and back to my face. "You are here because of a girl. This girl has dumped you right? And you are here to drown your sorrows?"

Her fingers stroked her glass, waiting for a reply. I watched her hand move up and down the glass, her fingers curled around the drinking vessel. The ring finger of her left hand showed a tan line where a ring once occupied. It is funny how I notice such small details.

" Is it that obvious? I see you are here without your husband. How does he feel about you chatting to a young man in a pub? Or does he know you are even out?" Trying to turn the focus away from me.

Jean's faced blushed and a look of guilt formed. "I am here to forget about my husband. Correction I mean my ex husband." She took a huge drink from her pint. "It looks like fate has bought us together, screw love."

Strange events had lead two unlikely people to meet in place to drink our away our troubled love lives. She told me how her own teenage sweetheart turned husband had been cheating with a former girlfriend and had done so for many years. Somewhere deep in my mind, it felt like I was talking to a kindred spirit.

"I feel like such a fool. Everyone in the community knew but they kept it to themselves as we have two children." She paused and sculled her pint. "Actually I have two children, he has one extra with her." A sob escaped from her. "I love this man, sure there were those people that said we didn't belong. He was always mucking around and enjoying life while I was studious and wanted to learn and aim high in my schooling. Yet as the old saying goes "Opposites attract." The thing is now my children are in...boarding school. He told me he is leaving me for the other woman." Spitting out the word "woman" as if it was an over cooked brussels sprout. Gathering her composure, she leaned slightly against me. "What is your story...Steven?"

This woman was so honest with me, it could be the liquor flowing in her body. Why was she opening up to a nineteen year old? Perhaps my youth made her feel comfortable. Should I be on my guard, is this a prank from those bunch of dunderheads as a last ha-ha you didn't get the girl send off.

In a drunken haze I let it all tumble out how I lost the love of my life because of being a prick to her in school and I lost her to the guy who made my life hell in school. Today they got married and here I was in a pub with some strange drunk older married woman.

"I think we can both agree love is not what you expect it to be." She placed her hand on my thigh and leaned in closer to my ear. "Now do you agree we can forget about these people?"

My eyes closed and I tried to control my breathing as her fingers wondered up my thigh. Her alcoholic breath filled my nostrils and brushed against the side of my face. "Would you like to come back to my room, upstairs? I booked a room for myself to stay in while things settle." Before I could answer, soft lips brushed against my ear and the tip of her tongue flicked along the ridge.

My voice was gone and I prayed she didn't touch my wand which was inside the pocket of my pants. Jean stood up and I followed her motions. Grabbing my hand she tugged me towards another room and up the stair case. Leading to an oak door with the number eight in bronze. She opened her hand bag fumbling for the key, while in my mind I was confused yet excited by this woman. No one ever paid me any sort of attention like this. Even if it was to make Jean forget about her troubles. No girl or woman wanted to be with me and yet Jean chose me.

"Here it is. Lets go in Steven." Jean unlocked the door and ushered me inside.

The room was just like any pub or hotel room. Bed, table, chairs and a wardrobe with a small bathroom of lavatory and sink.

I sat on the bed and she started to caress me. Leaning closer her brown eyes looked into mine and I felt her soft lips on my own. I responded to her kiss, it was urgent and strong. Her hands wondered under my shirt and across my chest.

"Take this off." She commanded. I complied and took it off. Jean looked at my chest and nodded her head.

She turned away from me and undid her bun. Her slick hair changed into a brown bushy mass, this was no muggle woman. No muggle woman could have hair like Jean's. I gasped in shock. "Don't be surprised. I know you and I are from the same world. Your wand is in your pocket."

"Did someone put you up to this?" I felt a sense of embarrassment.

"No, no one has. I saw you tonight Steven and I know what you are feeling. What I have told you is true, my own husband is with his lover. I wanted to be with a man who could show me the same attention." She leaned in and kissed me again, our tongues clashed in each other's mouths, her fingers entwined in my hair.

I wanted to registered what she said but all I could think of was her lips and hands on my back and torso. I felt lost in the waves of tingles and pleasure, nothing that magic could be created. My mind was with Jean's and here we lost our selves to pleasure just for one night and to forget about our lives and who we are.

What I experienced with Jean was pure lust and passion, filled with hurt and revenge, we were creatures taking from each other.

I held her in my arms, our breathes heavy and panting. The light shining on our skin, cool and glistening from sweat and the smell of our session mingled together imprinted in my mind. We laid together for a time until I felt her body relax and her breathing deepen. Gently I moved away from her, I got off the bed and relieved myself in the toilet.

I splashed water on my face from the sink. Looking in the mirror, I was still the loner Severus Snape, the greasy haired, big nosed git who everyone despises. Yet here I stood in front of my reflection, I lost my virginity to a stranger, an older witch none the less. Who was old enough to be my mother.

Walking back to the room, I looked at Jean's sleeping form on the bed. She laid flat on her back, her head turned to the side. Arms at her sides. My eye went to her breasts, they were not perky. Just soft mounds with stretch marks and her nipples soft brown. Between her breasts was a pendant of an hour glass. I knew what this was and had never seen one in person.

Who was Jean? Did she know me when I was young or when I was older? What secrets did she hold? Of course she would never tell me and again we are not ourselves in this room.

Stepping closer I saw faded scars that have healed over time and I wanted to trace them with my finger but I didn't want to wake her. A faded M was etched into her fore arm. It look like a word some of the letters had disappeared or were faded. M _ d_ l_c d. I grabbed my wand and placed it on her skin "Aparecium" I whispered. Slowly the skin revealed "Mudblood" within a flash it formed in my mind of an acquaintance, looking older, laughing in Jean's face and waving a dagger.

Bellatrix Black dragging the tip across the arm, blood dripping in it's wake.

Was Jean from the future?

I wanted to read into her mind as she slept. This older woman didn't just meet me to have a fling with a stranger. Something was up this was planned on her part. The guard that had fallen only hours ago was back.

Staring into her mind as she slept, she was not dreaming. Her body was asleep and her mind was replaying memories. Various scenes of her with what I assume her friends in Hogwarts. The face of a grumpy teenager with thick black eyebrows leaned forward kissing her. Arguments with a redhead boy. I gulp when I see James my nemesis laughing with Jean and yet his eyes were of my sweet Lily's. Yes this must be the future.

"Sit down." Snapped a voice and the face came into view. Black eyes, dark greasy hair glaring this man was me. I was staring at an older version of myself.

"What do you think you are doing?" Jean spoke. Pulling me away from her memories. Jean got up from bed, grabbing articles of her clothing.

Embarrassment was all I felt as I watched her move around the room. "I was curious to know who you are Jean, if that is your real name. You are from the future. Tell me why did you pick me? What is special about me?"

Jean's brown eyes narrowed and she chucked her clothes on the bed. Standing naked with her hands on her hips she stood tall. "Steven or should I say Severus. What I have told you night is the truth, my husband left me for his other woman. I can not go and confined in my friends as one is his sister and the other is our best friend."

I shook my head and tapped my wand against my thigh. "You said it a few times tonight. Explain yourself why do you want me? Am I anything to you?"

Her hands fell by her sides and she spoke in a soft tone. "Severus, you are a person of greatness. I just wanted to be with someone who understands about losing their love to someone else. This is most likely not the most smartest thing I have ever done in my life. I admire you and I wanted to know you as your younger self. I wanted to do something and break the rules. For once in my life I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and have fun.

You know I have never ever cheated on my husband. I have stayed loyal, and for this I wanted to be selfish. I guess I have now played a role in how you turn out in life."

Life, do I have a life? I mean in her mind I saw I was in what looked to be the dungeon of Hogwarts. "Can you tell me what is going to happen in the future?"

She fingered the time turner. "Severus you should know I can never tell you anything it will change history. Just know we will meet again." She said with her voice cracking as she seemed not wanting to cry.

Slowly she got dressed, did her hair and finally she hugged me and with planted little kisses on my cheeks. A sad expression in her eyes, she held my hands in her own.

"How will I know who you are Jean?"

"Severus you will know me. In fact I am a know-it-all."

"Of course you are know-it-all you know the future."

Jean chuckled, gave me a final kiss on the mouth. "I know this is a strange night for us both. I never planned it this way."

With that she disappeared from the room in thin air and disappeared from my life for now. It was an odd night. Right now James Potter and Lily Evans would be asleep in each other's arms. While I sleep in a pub called ironically the Red Lion with memories of a one night stand with an older woman who made me a man on a lonely night. Who one day I will meet again.

The End.


	2. Author's Note:

Hi guys,

Thanks for reading Red Lion. I know it isn't the best story and I got rather tired/lazy by the end of writing this piece. In fact it was 2:00 AM when I finished. This scenario has been playing in my mind for months and I finally got the courage to write it. I do hope you enjoyed it. Feedback is welcome be it positive or negative and constructive criticism is welcomed.

Rosie Summer.


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